The Socialist---September 2022

TheSocialist

PaPer of the SocialiSt Party

iSSue 148

SePtember 2022

Profiteers fuel inflation Crisis: Double-Digit Pay inCreases now!

Cost of Living Pre-Budget Protests: Cork: 2pm, Saturday 17 September, Grand Parade Dublin: 2.30pm, Saturday 24 September, Parnell Square

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Cost of living Crisis

The socialist

By Jonathan Diebold

Cost of living: We suffer, they profit While ordinary people struggle with the skyrocketing cost of living, many companies are making record profits. This is no coincidence: it is precisely because prices are so high that they are making such profits.

to increase from €1,900 a year to something closer to €3,300 annually.

Amazon exploitation machine

ESB joins in

The energy boom

even the eSb, a state-owned energy company, is joining in on the profiteering. their prices continue to ratchet up even as they earn record profits of €679 million. the government is only now talking about taking an increased dividend from the company, but this does nothing to alleviate the immediate problem of people who are facing a choice between heating or eating this winter. eSb must be made to operate on a break-even basis — something which would have no cost to the taxpayer.

amazon, a company which has seen soaring profits since the pandemic, has recently opened the first of its notoriously exploitative “fulfillment centres” in ireland. in 2021 alone, it better than doubled its profits — jumping from $21.3 billion to $54.7 billion. meanwhile, its workers suffer from low pay and overwork. its irish division's after-tax profits tripled to €51.5 million even as they laid off staff.

british Petroleum made €8.37 billion between april and June this year alone thanks to high oil prices. this was the company’s biggest quarterly profit in 14 years and will result in some €4.7 billion being handed to shareholders in bonuses. the same is true of the rest of the ‘big five’ oil companies, which altogether made profits of €59 billion. meanwhile, the combined cost of electricity and gas bills for irish households is set

oil giant bP just made its highest quarterly profit in 14 years

Moneylending vultures marlboro retail ltd, based in cork, is a money lender with a two-week waiting period now thanks to a massive surge in demand, the examiner reported. the company is now worth tens of millions.

People are desperate to make ends meet, and companies like this are only too happy to give out highly profitable high-interest loans. according to the examiner, a €100 loan from marlboro retail ltd, paid over a year, costs €154 in total.

Supermarkets cash in Supermarket sales are now 12% higher than before the pandemic, thanks in part to people eating out less. tesco is estimating that it

will reap between £2.4 billion and £2.6 billion from its operations across ireland and the uK this year. its profits before the pandemic pre-tax were £1.1 billion. meanwhile data analytics company Kantar estimates rising prices will add €453 to the average annual grocery bill, a figure over €100 higher than predicted in may.

Higher costs People in ireland pay as much as 70% more for irish goods than is charged in the uK. While it is already clear that supermarkets are profiting from the cost of living crisis, this is perhaps the most blatant example. there is no

reason for goods like Sudocrem or Dairygold to be cheaper abroad than they are here, it only demonstrates just how high companies are jacking up prices.

55% of inflation caused by profiteering research by the uS economic Policy institute showed that since 2020, 55% of uS inflation had been caused by corporate profiteering. european central bank board member Dr. isabel Schnabel backed up this analysis in a speech and indicated it was very much applicable to europe as well, and no doubt it's the case in ireland, too.

no to data centres, yes to public green energy infrastructure

by Summer conneely

A

s of 2022, we are currently in the midst of a worsening global energy crisis, with rapid and steep increases in the prices of almost all forms of energy. The reasons for this are numerous, ranging from sanctions imposed on Russia following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, to temporary shutdowns of nuclear power plants caused by corrosion in nuclear reactors, to droughts in areas of hydroelectricity production.

Regardless of the causes of these price increases, the brunt of the impact is being put onto ordinary people, with, for example, Electric Ireland having recently implemented their fourth price increase of the year. This is a cumulative increase of 67% for electricity prices, and 93% for gas prices, compared to the same time in 2021, and there is no sign of these price hikes coming to an end any time soon.

Data centres growing

With this context to the worsening crisis in energy supplies both globally and in Ireland, we must ask why Ireland’s government has continually allowed data centres to create a growing burden on our electricity. Data centres are buildings and spaces used to house servers and computer systems which

collect, store, and distribute data. Data centres are typically large-scale operations requiring a large amount of electricity and infrastructure to run.

Globally, data centres make up approximately 1-2% of electricity consumption, however, last year within Ireland they made up 14% of the country’s energy usage.

This number is projected to rise to 29% by 2028. This enormous electricity consumption by data centres has drawn opposition from environmentalists and the socialist left, particularly as Ireland’s electricity is largely generated from non-renewable sources. In March 2022, an amendment to South Dublin County Council’s 2022-2028 development plan was passed which banned the further planning and construction of data centres in the area during the 2022 to 2028 period. However, Fine Gael Minister of State for Planning Peter Burke has recently ordered the council to reverse this ban. Similarly, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has confirmed that there be no prevention on the further planning or construction of data centres in Ireland.

What’s the alternative?

It is evident that Ireland’s government, including the supposedly environmentalist Green Party, will facilitate the interests and profits of big business at

The energy crisis is going from bad to worse under this coalition government

the expense of the working class and of the environment, even as our environmental crisis worsens. While we can, and absolutely should, criticise the actions of the Irish government, we should recognise this is a natural consequence of the profit driven capitalist system we live in. Capitalism’s inherent prioritisation of profit runs against the interests of the work-

ing class and the wellbeing of the environment.

We must demand a moratorium on the construction of data centres, and that these companies be brought into democratic public ownership linked to a publicly owned electric grid that is based on renewable energy. When data is collected, it should not be misused for the purposes of surveillance, social

control, advertising and mass manipulation. On this basis we can also reduce the amount of energy that is wasted in the pursuit of profit.

It is only when energy is democratically and publicly owned and planned by the working class, completely divorced from the motive of profit, that the interests of workers and the environment can be placed at the forefront.

Cost of living Crisis

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The socialist

take the power back: nationalise the price-gouging energy companies by cathal curran

w

oRkeRs AnD their families are facing a devastating winter as the cost of living crisis is set to intensify and further squeeze people already barely making ends meet. The newest dagger pierced into the already swiss cheese-like backs of workers was when Airtricity announced that it was increasing the price of the electricity it supplies by over 35% and gas by 39%.

There have been over 50 similar price increases set forth by various energy supply companies since the start of 2021. On average, electricity bills are now around €900 more expensive than they were in 2020, and gas bills have increased by over €800, with more price rises almost certainly on the way, if nothing is done to prevent it.

Freezing or eating

Not only will this result in some families having to choose between freezing and eating, but an increase to the cost of energy will push the prices of everyday items up as well, as every commodity requires electricity in its production.

With the lack of price controls, corporations are free to pass on these increases to consumers to ensure their profits are maintained and they can continue to engorge their shareholder’s bank accounts with dividends.

SSE Airtricity Ireland paid its UKbased parent company SSE a dividend of €115 million last year. SSE itself re-

by marie-claire Jennequin

EU competition laws prevent the ESB, a state-owned company, to run on a non-for-profit basis

ported a 15% increase in profit to £1.5 billion. Profits at Bord Gáis were up 74% in the first half of this year to £33 million and their owner, Centrica, reported half-year profits of £1.3 billion, a gigantic jump from the £242 million recorded last year.

Government’s token measures

To leave something as vital as electricity to market impulses is unconscionable. The coalition government may well announce another token of €200 off your electricity bills for one measly month but this is only putting your money, through taxes, into these

companies’ pockets in a more roundabout way.

The only solution is to make this most vital of utilities fully public and operating for need not profit. The energy companies need to be nationalised, and the profit motive eliminated, which would save millions, and electricity can be doled out on the basis of need should there be shortages. This would mean no families will go without heating on freezing cold winter nights, so as to continue letting our world-beating collection of data centres collect our most personal data in order to sell people things they already own, and to

more accurately inform people of the area in which local girls are waiting for them.

We could use the resources of these companies to increase the available energy supply also, for example we have huge untapped potential in offshore wind, as we shockingly have only one such farm operating at this moment.

Private companies will always make decisions based on increasing their profits at the expense of everything else.

The energy we need to stay alive in many cases is something we cannot allow them to toy with anymore. We need to take the power back.

Food costs skyrocket – price controls now! three biggest grocery retailers with approximately 66% (€11.6 billion) of the market divided between them, followed

by Lidl and Aldi who take about 26% (€4.2 billion). All of these companies made record profits during the pandemic and are still making higher profits now than they did prior to the Covid lock-downs.

by conor burke

T

he gRowing rise in the cost of basic food staples is forcing many families to have to seek help from charities such as saint Vincent De Paul (sVP) or from local food banks; one in three calls to sVP was from those facing food poverty, according to the charity. it is estimated that the cost of the average food shop has increased by €453 since the start of the year and this is on top of the fact that even prior to the current inflationary crisis, food prices in ireland were already 17% higher than the eU average.

Who pays the price?

A net exporter of food

Ireland is a net exporter of food. In fact we produce more than eight times the amount of food that is needed to feed the country’s population. Ireland is well known for its production of milk, cheese and eggs, yet the cost of these items is 25% higher here than the EU 27, while breads and cereals are 20% higher. Ireland is also joint most expensive for non-alcoholic drinks, with prices 37% higher than other EU countries. These are all foods that are produced here so the argument that these prices are down to shipping or import costs doesn’t add up.

Back to school costs – we need real free education

The Government can bring in emergency legislation to bring down prices

So what is the reason for these extortionate price increases? Some of it is due to increased production costs which is attributed to the war in Ukraine, but that doesn’t account for the overall figures and the fact that food here is so much more expensive

than other EU countries who face the same inflationary pressures. Clearly, a significant proportion of these costs comes down to price-gouging by producers and the major retailers who are all making massive profits annually.

Dunnes, Tesco and Supervalu are the

Clearly there is more than enough room within these super profits for companies to take a hit in order to ease the burden on workers, families and young people, while also paying their employees a decent wage. However, the logic of the bosses system stands in opposition to such a measure. This is why we need radical measures such as price controls that can put a stop to this greed and profiteering and ensure that the costs of key goods and services remain affordable for ordinary people.

For example, the Government could use Section 61 of the 2007 Consumer Protection Act to freeze prices for energy, food and fuel.

The workers’ movement in the past succeeded in implementing these kinds of measures and it stands to reason that we can do so again. As the great civil rights activist Malcolm-X once said: “We are not outnumbered, we are out organized.”

FREE EDUCATION in Ireland?

The stark reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth – a reality that this Government refuses to acknowledge, let alone act on.

2022 saw an increase of €100 to the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance. While this increase was welcomed to ease the pressure for many families, the move is flawed for many reasons: 1.

A once-off token payment is a sticking plaster on the already spiralling cost of living and does nothing to address the root cause of this crisis and the profiteering of big companies such as publishers who have a monopoly on Irish school book publication.

2.

This additional €100 is only available to those who already qualify for the payment – excluding half a million children in the country, many already on the breadline.

3.

The income levels to qualify for the payment have not increased, while wages remain stagnant and food costs, rents and utilities continue to skyrocket.

What do we need?

The most minimum intervention necessary is the provision of a retrospective payment for all families with school-going children to alleviate the hardship of back to school costs.

Ireland is bottom of the class in the EU for percentage spend of GDP on primary and secondary education (2.16%).

We need to follow the example of other EU countries, such as France and Belgium, and provide books and materials free to all students.

We need to see an end to the draconian ‘voluntary’ payments parents have to make to schools yearly.

Public pressure forced the government to increase the Back to School Allowance. We cannot afford to let up on this pressure. We have seen the power of a working-class movement to create change, such as the water charges movement. It is this same movement that is needed now to demand action, to demand genuinely free education for all, wage increases and caps on exorbitant living costs.

4

AnAlysis

The socialist

Budget 2023: Government token measures are an insult hikes in place, and control and ownership of the industry still in the hands of the profiteers.

The Government has "offered" public sector workers a 6.5% increase over two years. It has ruled out cost of living increases or anything that might resemble them. The Low Pay Commission has recommended an increase in the minimum wage, but the Budget will not provide for any increase that even approaches the Living Wage figure of €12.90, which was set before inflation rocketed and is now clearly out of date.

by mick barry tD

T

UesDAy, 27 september is Budget Day and hard pressed working-class people will be demanding action from the government on the cost of living crisis.

No sooner had people struggled to pay all the back to school costs than news broke of a new round of electricity and gas price increases, with Airtricity leading the way with shocking 45% hikes.

The Government says it plans to increase budget spending by €6.7 billion and to spend a further €1 billion on once-off cost of living measures. These figures fall short of the overall improvement in the State's finances which have turned around to the tune of €10 billion in the last year — from a €5 billion deficit to a €5 billion surplus.

They also fall far short of what is needed to protect the living standards of ordinary people as can be seen by what we know so far of the Government's plans.

Pitiful pay & welfare increases

Fifty percent of the €6.7 billion increase will be needed just to meet current demand for public services. The Government has ruled out a €15 across the board increase in social welfare payments and the maximum increase ex-

What’s needed?

Coalition government refuses point blank to take measures that will stop profiteering

pected is now €10 per week.

Reports seem to indicate that the once-off package may include another €200 electricity credit, a bonus weeks' social welfare and an extension of the duration of the fuel allowance scheme.

But what is the Government going to do about rampant profiteering?

The parent company of Airtricity (SSE) made €1.36 billion in pre-tax profits in the year to 31 March 31. Why are they being allowed to massively hike gas and electricity prices? There is talk of a tax on the windfall profits of energy companies but this appears to be a token measure which leaves the price

What measures would a socialist government implement? A socialist government would deliver cost of living pay increases for all 300,000 public sector workers; it would increase the minimum wage to €16 per hour; it would introduce a four-day working week with no loss in pay; it would aim to bring all social welfare payments up to the old PUP rate of €350 a week and would implement a 15% across the board increase as an immediate first step.

Energy prices and food prices would be frozen by way of an order under the 2006 Consumer Protection Act. Both the big energy companies and the big food wholesalers and supermarkets would be taken into public ownership and run by working people in the inter-

ests of working people, not for the maximisation of shareholder profit.

Rents would not merely be frozen but cut, and large property portfolios like those of IRES REIT nationalised.

State provision of social and affordable housing would be massively stepped up to counteract the exodus from the market of so many small landlords. Public transport would be massively expanded and made free at the point of use.

Added costs on pay and welfare provision would be covered by steeply progressive taxes on wealth and record corporate profits. In fact, the profiteering system of capitalism itself will need to be ended if the cost of living crisis is to be fully addressed, by taking the key sectors of the economy into democratic public ownership.

Mass pressure needed

Of course, we unfortunately don't have a socialist government, we have a capitalist Fianna Fáil / Fine Gael / Green Party government. That being the case, pressure needs to be brought to bear to demand a real campaign on all of these issues from the trade union movement.

Action also needs to be taken to build the cost of living protests planned for September 17 (Cork) snd September 24 (Dublin) — and to escalate those protests after the Budget as the winter approaches and arrives.

vote no: reject the public sector pay deal! organise & mobilise to win a real pay rise T The time of writing the government has negotiated a pay agreement with the iCTU (irish Congress of Trade Unions) public services committee. The deal is currently with the executives of the respective unions who will recommend their members to vote for or reject it.

The negotiated deal is for an additional 3% in 2022 on top of the 1% currently agreed under the building momentum agreement, and a 3.5% increase in 2023. Currently, inflation is close to 10% and could reach 15% by the end of the year, meaning this deal represents a significant pay cut in reality. Worse still is tying workers' hands next year while energy, fuel, rent, food prices etc. are soaring.

and down again in a futile strategy, but at least he mobilised his forces. Unfortunately, for public sector workers, and workers generally, the majority of the leadership in ICTU are deeply schooled in the methods of social partnership, seeing themselves as states people, being careful not to offend the billionaire-owned press, or put forward an alternative to the ideas of the rightwing parties. This timid approach leads to a fear of mobilising the true power of the trade union movement and building powerful active rank and file who would challenge this approach.

Kevin Callinan, President of ICTU and Fórsa General Secretary said he believed “the outcome of this long process was the best that could currently be achieved through negotiations."

A bad lead

Negotiation with no strategy

According to the Central Statistics Office's ‘Labour Force Survey’ union membership stands at 516,000 members in Ireland. How could the largest force in society, and potentially the strongest, negotiate such a poor deal?

In the children's nursery rhyme the grand old Duke of York marched his ten thousand men to the top of a hill

What the six-month timeline shows is this: In early March 2022, due to rising inflation ICTU triggered pay negotiations. The government didn't respond for two months until it entered into talks in May. An offer of just 2.5% for 2022 was rejected by unions on 17 June. ICTU began to plan coordinated

by mark Johnson

A

balloting but said it was open to more talks “even at short notice”. Between 18 June and mid-August, nearly two months, the government had not called unions back to talks, with ballots planned for after the budget. Finally, on 29 August a new deal was negotiated and ballots for industrial action were called off to allow a vote on the deal.

What was clearly missing during this period was any industrial strategy by the trade union leadership that could empower members and bring maximum pressure on the government to win an inflation-busting pay deal.

A fighting leadership would have done something like the following: Called town hall meetings in March in all workplaces, bringing workers together to discuss the best tactics and encouraging the forming of local ballot / action committees.

A national protest in July or August could have been called, to bring maximum pressure on the government, making common cause with all those affected by the cost of living in our communities, including private sector workers struggling with low pay.

Going into pay talks with the momentum of a campaign of protest and agitation, being strike-ready with

Power of trade union members must be mobilised to win double-digit pay increases

members engaged in each workplace, would have put the unions in a far stronger position, and meant any negotiations would deliver a significantly better deal than the one on offer.

No vote now crucial

The lesson from Britain this year shows that when a lead is given workers can win and can inspire others to fight.

Mick Lynch of the RMT, for its militant stand, has become a household

name, inspiring many other workers to follow their example. Google searches in the UK asking "how to join a union" have increased hundreds-fold, #GeneralStrike was trending on Twitter, and tens of thousands in working-class communities are protesting under the ‘Enough Is Enough’ campaign.

Reclaiming the trade unions into a fighting movement in Ireland with solidarity at its core would transform the situation and is a key task.

north

5

The socialist

Another year, another dire student accommodation crisis

minister profiteering from the housing crisis

by brandon byrne

T

he hoUsing crisis has reached depressing new lows with the Department of housing reporting at the end of August a record number 10,568 people living in emergency accommodation.

This figure however does not account for the many thousands sleeping rough, living in direct provision or women in refuge centres. Housing charity Threshold warned of an “onslaught of evictions” to come from a rental market in spiral, with rents rising out of reach for most people and the availability of properties plummeting.

by Dan o’rourke

Camping on campus?

Amidst this crisis are also Ireland’s young people, with nearly 50% of young adults aged 25-29 living in their parent’s home, forced out of the rental market with little hope of affording their own home. This issue is compounded for students, who are placed in even more precarious positions due to needing accommodation close to where they study and having to balance education and work. The lack of investment in student housing by universities and the state has led to a booming demand for rental properties near colleges, with landlords charging exorbitant rents.

Molly Greenough, President of UCD Student Union has spoken of

fianna fáil tD robert troy – a

Many students are forced to travel four hours a day to get to and from college

students taking out loans as they cannot afford to pay rent for the coming year. Some are contacting the union to ask if they are allowed to camp on campus in order to attend their lectures!

A dire situation

Outside of Dublin the situation is still dire, according to a survey by Maynooth Student Union last week, 53% of students looking for accommodation for the coming academic year have still been unable to secure a place.

The lack of housing for students here

is particularly damaging as Maynooth is the closest university to serve much of Ireland’s midlands. This means that the overwhelming majority of students are commuters. Many have said that they travel four or more hours a day to attend lectures.

The lack of affordable housing for students in Ireland is leading to an erosion of the right to an education. Thousands of students are being forced to drop out as they cannot access or afford a place to live. As long as the private rental market is allowed to control the

supply of housing this situation will continue and worsen. Students unions, allied with the trade union movement, must organise mass demonstrations and actions to ensure that the state is forced to immediately step in. The privately owned purpose-built student accommodation complexes throughout Dublin city should be taken into public ownership and made genuinely affordable, and the state must commence the building more student accommodation, on campus and off campuses, to meet the housing needs of all.

Savita's 10th Anniversary March for health, equality & bodily autonomy 1pm Saturday 29 October, Garden of Remembrance, Dublin 1

o

CToBeR 2022 is the 10th anniversary of the death of savita halappanavar. savita lost her life suffering in agony in a galway hospital. facing an inevitable miscarriage, savita repeatedly begged for what would have been a lifesaving abortion but was denied this due to the existence of a foetal heartbeat.

This tragedy sparked a movement from below that delivered repeal and abortion legislation.

But limits in the law and access north and south are leaving people behind. In 2021, 206 travelled from the south and 161 travelled from the north to Britain for abortion care.

Furthermore, the debacle of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) shows that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens are unwilling / unable to stand up to the church. This was the first maternity hospital established since repeal and an epic fail for social progress.

ROSA has called a march from the Garden of Remembrance, Dublin 1 to the Dail at 1pm on Saturday 29 October, 10 years after the death of Savita, both to commemorate her and to restate what we vowed following her death —

‘Never Again’. The movement’s call was for Savita and all pregnant people’s lives.

But also for much more. l Travelling for abortion and gender affirming healthcare — no more! l Catholic Church influence in public health and education — no more ! l Culture of Misogyny , LGBTQphobia & racism — no more !

Internationally, the shocking overturning of Roe V Wade in the US, and Poland’s recent draconian abortion ban are endangering lives and illustrate the urgency to march for abortion rights everywhere. On this island, the intensifying transphobia being spouted across the airwaves as well as the rise in gender based and LGBTQIphobic violence in recent years intensify the urgency to deliver a huge march on 29 October for change.

Help us build for a huge march to the Dail on 29 October: take flyers; help with posters; get a motion of support for the march passed by your trade union or SU branch — Contact us on 087 641 8519 to volunteer.

FIANNA FÁIL junior minister Robert Troy, in the best tradition of his party, is beset by multiple property profiteering scandals and allegations of corruption. through a string of articles released by investigative media outlet ‘the Ditch’ it has been revealed that the tD bought property from the criminal asset bureau, sold it to Westmeath county council while he was a sitting councillor, did not declare this and other income from rent and property sales, does not have planning permission or fire certs for a rental property, and failed to declare directorship of a company, among other allegations. this, from a junior minister responsible for company regulation, hardly inspires confidence. troy has offered grovelling apologies, but declares he did not intentionally conceal anything. taoiseach micheal martin and tánaiste leo Varadkar have defended the beleaguered tD. A system run by landlords for landlords the fact that a tD merely has to admit their conflict of interest, rather than rid themselves of it, is itself an indictment of the system. in 2021, reports showed that 25% of tDs are landlords. this is literally a Government and system of and for the rich. at the core of the housing crisis is the for-profit model – a model that can only be sustained on the basis of handing over public money to private interests – and a model that is inherently incapable of catering for need. in total, the various rent supplements, haP, raS etc. amounted to a massive €893 million handed over to private wealth hoarders in 2021. this has the effect of inflating rent costs because landlords will increase their prices each time the government increases rental subsidies. this approach of successive governments is perfectly rational from the point of view of the landlords and business owners and has perpetuated the housing emergency. robert troy is a personification of how wedded ideologically (and in troy’s case, materially), the Government and political establishment are to the private market model that has caused the housing emergency and is therefore incapable of resolving it.

6 speCiAl feAture It’s been dubbed the Age of Disorder. The 2020s and the present era of capitalism could also be described aptly and alliteratively as the Era of Chaos, Crisis and Catastrophe. Multifaceted crises of and for the system define the epoch of today. These crises that are intrinsically rooted in today’s capitalism, are interconnected, and also each have dispersive and dynamic qualities of their own, writes Laura Fitzgerald.

T

hese CRises include those of war and imperialist rivalry; a growing period of ‘stagflation’ including a spiralling cost of living / food / energy price crisis; the climate and ecological crisis.

in Europe and a €200 billion increase in military spending by EU states alone.

The inter-imperialist rivalries of this era show that capitalism is incapable of delivering peace, a grim reality with a brutal human toll.

New Cold War

“The unemployed were hungry.

The employed are hungry now.”

— Bertolt Brecht

The era of globalisation and neoliberalism has given way to a new period of intensified rivalries between imperialist powers — the US, China and Russia.

This is rooted in the reality of global capitalism today, including the longterm decline of the economic prowess of US capitalism, and therefore of US imperialism. This decline was symbolised

by US imperialism’s ignominious exit from Afghanistan that heaped yet more misery upon the Afghan people who have suffered decades of imperialist occupation only to be face another stint of Taliban rule.

The emergence of new global capitalist powers, most especially that of China, means this tension is a constant danger — a “New Cold War” between nuclear powers.

Inter-imperialist conflict has been massively intensified in light of Russia’s despicable invasion of Ukraine. Six months on and with no end in sight, a conservative estimate is that over 50,000 have lost their lives. Fourteen million have been displaced. Cities have been destroyed. Putin’s vicious brutality has been met with a ratcheting up of militarism by Western powers, with a sevenfold increase of NATO troop presence

Coming out of the Covid lockdowns, the failure of the capitalist market meant labour shortages and supply chain issues that caused inflationary pressure — swiftly compounded by the repercussions of the war on Ukraine. “Costly food and energy are fostering global unrest” lamented The Economist recently.

The severity of rising food and energy bills is such that numerous mouthpieces of the capitalist establishment are intimating their fear about the class strife and class struggle that will ensue.

Meanwhile, working-class and poor people the world over are worrying about putting food on the table, keeping the lights on, or are hungry and cold.

And it’s a global crisis. Pew Research has indicated that inflation rates have doubled in 37 of the 44 richest countries since 2020. The research also indicated that Turkey, for example, has inflation of 54.8%!

Unlike the last period of ‘stagflation’ in the 1970s, the current one is unprecedented coming after more than a decade of decline of real wages. Any attempts by the capitalist class to blame price rises on rising wages must be met with derision.

Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine is one by-product of the New Cold War

The so The problem is profit in every sense. A prolonged squeeze on wages and conditions facing the world’s working classes has enabled soaring profits.

Ecological crisis — profit-drive ruining lives & nature

Capitalism’s climate and ecological catastrophe — the system’s addiction to the burning of fossil fuels and its continued destruction of the environment for profit — is at an advanced stage such that it is increasingly entwined with the other crises of the system. In Pakistan at the time of writing, floods have submerged one-third of the country as the death toll mounts, breaking records for their terrible scale. Extreme weather events, rising sea levels and maimed ecosystems already mean there are over 20 million climate refugees annually. Recent predictions have spoken of 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050.

The Covid crisis itself — and global excess mortality associated with Covid was 14.91 million in 24 months of the pandemic — has to be understood in the context of the ecological breakdown resulting in the unrelenting extraction of profit from nature. Scientists were warning for years about the likelihood of a pandemic but short-termism of the profit-system meant government’s were woefully underprepared and the likes of vaccine patents — the privatising of scientific and medical advancement that should be for the public good — served to impede the system from dealing more effectively with the crisis. Yet scientists are warning of new pandemics on the horizon, with global inequality and the destruction of the environment cited by authors in the Nature Medicine Journal as the roots of the threat, and main impediments in addressing it.

“Socialism or barbarism”

“By occupation, by theft, by extortion, by extermination… by the expropriation of natural resources… by the use and the threat of military force… capitalism… is a rampaging tiger committed to the destruction or absorption of all other ways of life except its own.” So wrote the phenomenal revolutionary socialist and antiwar trailblazer, Rosa Luxemburg, over a century ago. The multifaceted crisis of and for capitalism in the 2020s are woven thoroughly into the fabric of a decaying system. The extraction of profit from workers, from nature — the essence of the system — is causing a multifaceted and unprecedented crisis.

This is no series of unfortunate events.

This is no short-term blip. The billionaires who increased their wealth by over $10 trillion during the pandemic — the super-rich capitalist elite who profit directly from exploitation of workers and nature — they are the depraved beneficiaries of the chaos and cruelty of the inequality, immiseration and war that’s rife.

Rosa Luxemburg also talked about “socialism or barbarism”. Every single step in the direction of working-class, poor and oppressed people struggling and organising against the status quo is an assertion of humanity in the midst of inhumanity. Every single movement of solidarity to wrestle wealth out of private hands into the pockets of working people, is a plus.

The future of humanity and the planet requires that such a struggle is intensely imbued with a socialist programme that’s for a breaking with capitalism, that can really build an alternative to the unacceptable status quo.

Chaos, Cris – Capitalist

socialism – the alte by manus lenihan

C

APiTAlism is all too real as a force in our daily lives. socialism, by contrast, can seem vague and distant. what is the socialist alternative and how would it solve the crises we are living through?

Let's take a few everyday examples.

Instead of 40 or more, a 20- or 30-hour working week would be possible, with a living wage for all. Rent and bills could be reduced to a small sliver of your income. Free and expanded public transport would mean people would be able to go wherever they wanted while commuters wouldn’t have to pay through the nose to fill their fuel tanks. The physical and mental healthcare people need would be free, accessible and provided in a timely fashion.

These are just some examples of everyday improvements a socialist programme would easily deliver.

Rational planning

But how would all this be possible?

How would we pay for it?

Just for starters, the wealth of the rich could be shared out to help those most in need; mansions could be turned into health centres. The best buildings in a large city could be reserved not for the offices of some investment fund, but for the public amenities.

But the main point is this: the biggest companies and banks would be taken into public ownership. Workers and consumers would elect representatives

who, along with specialists and central government planners, would democratically run these enterprises, as part of a rational plan for the whole economy.

So the vast wealth which corporations make would be invested according to democratic decisions, not according to the profit motive of shareholders. The world around us would no longer be shaped by the whims of rich people, and would take on a more human aspect.

It's possible — in theory — that an elected worker's council would still, like private owners, choose to invest in crypto snake oil, over-hyped start-ups, share buybacks, housing bubbles, and flashy ads to convince people to buy one brand instead of another. Possible, but unlikely.

We are told that human nature is inherently self-interested. Whether that’s true or not, most of us would tend to invest in things that benefit us all, like better schools, hospitals, housing, childcare, transport, etc.

Democratically agreed priorities

Labour-saving technology, instead of creating unemployment, would mean a sharing out of work — hence that 20hour week. Treating housing and energy as public utilities, kicking out speculation and profiteering, would make a green transition much quicker and easier, and also reduce bills.

Right now, because of the capitalist market, the best minds and the most funds are focused on the most trivial or

speCiAl feAture

ocialist

7

Is it possible to change the world, or is socialism a utopian dream?

sis & Catastrophe Decay in the 2020s

ernative to crisis & inequality harmful things, like how to optimise clicks on social media, or how to help rich people beat the tax system. What if the incentives were turned around?

What if we could channel all that effort into solving problems like climate change or poverty?

Today we are looking at blackouts and a fuel-rationing regime being brought in. This is an authoritarian solution to a capitalist problem. With free and expanded public transport, with ambitious spending on doing up homes for energy efficiency, you could save more fuel than the strictest rationing system.

Ending duplication and waste

Socialism would not be a perfect utopia.

There would still be inequality, initially; it might be necessary to give the bestqualified specialists more pay, to give bonuses to those who work harder, etc.

That would be nothing close to the inequality that exists today, with the CEO earning hundreds of times more than the worker. Over time all inequality could hopefully be phased out. As society becomes more equal, less wasteful and more harmonious it is possible that the security forces and prisons too could be reduced, disarmed, or even phased out entirely.

Some products would no longer be available, because it's wasteful to transport stuff all around the world just because someone somewhere will pay for it.

Wherever possible, goods would be produced near where they are consumed.

On the other hand, products would not be shoved in our faces at every turn.

You would no longer see 20 different kinds of chocolate bars and 20 different kinds of fizzy drinks as you approach a shop counter. From the point of view of both health and of reducing single-use plastics, this would be a dramatic improvement.

Endless possibilities

What is described above is not a flawless, perfect system. Really, it's just the bare minimum a person should expect in a technologically-advanced society.

And this is only a possible sketch of what socialism might look like. There is no blueprint for socialism, as it would not be imposed from on high but worked out democratically through mass participation.

And it would not be like a computer upgrade; its institutions would emerge through strikes and protests in a living, dynamic struggle that would go down in history. It could only succeed as part of an international wave of revolution, with the masses of one country inspiring the next across a whole region, a continent, or even the whole world.

by eddie mccabe “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.” – ursula le Guin GIVEN THE state of the world today – a world in the throes of multiple major crises, including existential crises, which are all connected consequences of a system in decay – it’s not an easy time to be a defender of capitalism.

Still, defenders of capitalism abound throughout society. but for the most part, when articulated, their defences are very different from the brash speechifying about the superiority of the market that was ubiquitous 20 years ago. So profoundly has the neoliberal capitalist era failed to make the world a better place, or to provide even the basics of decent housing, jobs or a healthy environment, that the best argument they can muster in defence of capitalism is that ‘there is no alternative’.

Common sense this really is the best thing capitalism has going for it, and pathetic as that is, it’s an idea that has a powerful resonance. it permeates the education system, the political arena and the mainstream media. everything we’re taught from an early age, and actually how we’re trained to think, is, as James connolly said, “in the grooves and along the lines of how those who exploit us want us to think.” ‘common sense’, which is for the most part very sensible, and a useful way of thinking about many problems, is however based on capitalist ideology. the ‘common sense’ that says we can’t demand too much in wages and conditions because we might put our employer out of business, for example. or the ‘common sense’ that says we need to look after the poor here in ireland before we can think about helping the poor anywhere else; or the common sense that says that sex and gender are purely binary concepts; or the common sense that says we have to fight for gradual reforms, not revolution, despite the fact that the house is on fire, as Greta thunberg exclaimed. basically, common sense is fine for the most part, but it is fundamentally opposed to radical change: it steers people away from thinking about

radical change in favour of what’s seen as most ‘practical’. breaking with capitalist ideology, so ingrained as it is, is not easily done – it’s a process and it takes time, which can be more or less depending on one’s circumstances and experiences. involvement in class struggles certainly speeds up the process. So living in a time of rising class struggles, such as today, means living in a time ripe for anti-capitalist and socialist ideas. as connolly also wrote: “revolution is never practical – until the hour of the revolution strikes. Then it alone is practical, and all the efforts of the conservatives, and compromisers become the most futile and visionary of human imaginings.”

Good sense the truth is that there’s no more utopian a belief than that capitalism can exist without poverty, war, environmental destruction, oppression, disease, forced displacement, etc. So either we accept these things, and make the most of our descent to extinction, or we we don’t, and instead get rid of capitalism. and why wouldn’t we? looking at the question rationally: billions of workers, small farmers and poor folk toil everyday to create a world of plenty, but they struggle to get by (with varying qualities of life among them) while a tiny elite lives lavishly. clearly these billions of working-class people should demand more from the billionaires. and also clearly – because their work is what makes the world run – if they were organised they could get whatever they demanded. it’s not power, then, that holds back the labouring majority; it’s confidence in its own capability and in the possibility of an alternative. in the course of its clashes and conflicts with the (unnecessary) hardship of life under capitalism, and those responsible for it, the working class can acquire these things – the history of working-class struggle teaches us that much. history also teaches us that change is constant in human societies, including at times revolutionary change. capitalism itself was the product of revolutions, and it has given rise to a class which has risen against it on countless occasions. revolutions will happen again, that’s for sure. Socialism is not for sure, but it surely is possible.

8

internAtionAl

The socialist

Droughts in China, floods in pakistan – climate change is wreaking devastation ronment, as we have been told it would, capitalism is worsening and accelerating its destruction. As journalist George Monbiot said, “The entire habitable planet is a necessary sacrifice so that fossil fuel industries can continue making their profits.”

by James fleming

A

T The end of August, China witnessed its worst heatwave on record. Chongqing, a city of about 20 million people in the sichuan region, suffered temperatures of 45°C. The heat wave has led to an energy crisis. in response, authorities have rationed power supplies to 'factories, shopping malls, high rises and public transport', which means many people no longer have access to air-conditioning to cope with the heat.

There are water shortages and farming has been debilitated. Power production in Sichuan is exacerbated further because it relies on water for hydropower. According to The Guardian (30 August), it 'would take a meteorological miracle' to get back to normal power production levels. This means that areas such as Sichuan would “have to boost reliance on energy from fossil fuels... until the development of renewable sources caught up”, which adds fuel to the climate crisis.

Flooding

Ironically, it looks as if the droughts

Climate change is not inevitable

Poyang, China’s largest fresh water lake, dried up in August

caused across this massive country may be followed by flooding. In neighbouring Pakistan one-third of the country is currently under water from floods and over 1,000 people have been killed as a direct result.

Another summer of terror in Gaza

The disasters in China and Pakistan are yet more examples of what are now continuous disasters occurring across the globe, all horrific symptoms of climate catastrophe. Many are naturally sick and tired of the headlines, suffer-

ing from news fatigue – a condition caused by one miserable headline after another. We are made to feel powerless, and the powers that be never seem to have feasible or lasting solutions.

Far from gradually saving the envi-

Climate catastrophe is not inevitable and working-class people can stop it.

It is a result of the politics and economics of capitalism, a system based on the exploitation of people and the environment in the pursuit of profit for the few.

It is more profitable for the big auto industry to sell cars to transport one person at a time than to set up decent public transport infrastructure that can transport hundreds or thousands at a time (and more safely); it is more profitable for the big energy companies to burn dirty fossil fuels than create cheap energy from solar or wind power.

To resist climate change and strive for climate justice, we must struggle to end capitalism and win a democratic socialist society that protects the environment we live in.

one year on from Us withdrawal: afghans face famine & growing repression by harper cleves

o

by michael Shiel lantry FROM 6 to 8 August, Missile strikes on Gaza by the Israeli state military killed 47 Palestinian civillians, including 16 children, and left up to 300 injured. The campaign has been described in mainstream news outlets as a 'conflict' due to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) firing rockets after the bombings had begun, even though the Israeli PM Yair Lapid had earlier claimed the attacks were a 'pre-emptive' strike against the PIJ! Palestinian health authorities have warned of an incoming collapse of Gaza's health service due to a fuel crisis, after israel stopped the transport of fuel to the region shortly before the attack.

With israel's fifth election in two years due in November, lapid's first as an incumbent, the inability to form a stable government and the need to rally voters has prompted intensified stoking of national chauvinism with devastating consequences.

Failed strategy the PiJ are allied with hamas, another right-wing pro-capitalist organisation, neither have a strategy to defeat the siege of Gaza or the occupation of Palestine. they rely on counterproductive, sporadic rocket attacks; talks that have only gained temporary and unstable ceasefires; and attempts to seek allies among imperialist powers and the ruling classes of neighbouring countries, such as the corrupt ex-field marshal abdul fatah al-Sisi in egypt. there is an alternative to this failed approach. in may of last year, a general strike of Palestinian people exerted enormous pressure on the israeli ruling class during its last major assault on Gaza. What is needed is a democratically organised grassroots movement of the Palestinain masses from below, with a right to armed self defence.

Such a movement could unite with the israeli working class, and the working class and poor throughout this region, to overthrow all oppressive capitalist regimes and imperialism, and build a new, socialist middle east.

n 30 August 2021 the last United states troops withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving the rightwing extremist group the Taliban to fill the political void left by this departure. Almost two decades of imperialist war and occupation, at a cost of trillions of dollars, resulted in the deaths of 250,000 Afghan people — illustrating the barbarity of imperialism and capitalism’s domination of the world.

Another horrific catastrophe now faces the people of Afghanistan. An estimated six million are at risk of famine as a result of US imposed sanctions.

Ninety percent of the population faces malnutrition and its health system is on the verge of collapse. Having brutally occupied and waged war on the Afghan people for two decades, the major capitalist powers are plunging the country into another humanitarian catastrophe. They are willing to starve its populace because it is ruled by a regime that is not compliant to the diktats.

Imperialist legacy

Many people still wrongly assume that Afghanistan is inherently backward place, particularly on issues of feminism, yet history and recent struggle says otherwise. In 1919, in the context of a struggle for independence, and with the influence of the Russian revolution, Afghan women won the right to vote — a full year before their counterparts in the United States.

In 1978, the leftist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan rose to power, instituting land reform as well as declaring the equality of women.

Women were given the freedom to choose their careers. Free literacy classes and vocational training were offered in order to extend opportunities for women. By 1991 there were 7,000 women in higher education in Afghanistan. It was these progressive reforms, not US imperialism, that offered the most opportunities for Afghan women in recent history.

In fact, the prevalence of the Taliban largely stems from the intervention the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the CIA funded and assisted the Mujahideen, a rightwing Islamic group which would be the forerunner of the Taliban. Without this, the takeover of the Mujahideen in 1992 would have proven less likely.

Even when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, ousting a right wing regime, it was never able or willing to resolve the gender inequality and the generalised suffering of an impov-

erished population. The US-backed President Karzai endorsed a code of conduct which stated women could not travel without a male supervisor. In 2013, the United Nations noted a 20% increase in domestic violence.

End the sanctions

Conditions for women in Afghanistan have again worsened in this first year of Taliban rule. Almost immediately the Taliban ordered women employees of the government to stay home and in most areas girls are only able to attend school up to the sixth grade. Women must be accompanied by a male blood relative while leaving the home, and can no longer be issued a drivers licence.

The workers’ movement globally must demand an end to the sanctions against Afghanistan and that emergency aid is urgently provided to prevent further death and hunger.

As socialists we say no to Taliban rule and no to imperialism. A struggle for democracy and socialism by the workers, poor and oppressed must be forged in Afghanistan, Pakistan and this wider region to win true liberation for all.

north

9

The socialist

north: cost of living crisis

Build for a general strike!

A

s The cost of living continues to skyrocket, inflation is officially over 11% with some predicting it will reach 18% by next year. over 155,000 CwU members across both BT and Royal mail are striking together today. They are not alone with worker’s council workers, journalists for the company Reach and countless others have also been striking. now added to by further ballots for industrial action being called for by university workers, health workers and others.

Strong determined action

We need strong, determined, coordinated and well-planned actions to force employers to back down. Such action must be decided and planned by workers in the affected workplaces to ensure maximum effectiveness as it is workers on the ground who best know not only their jobs and the workings of companies and sectors but also how to ensure actions have the maximum impact.

This can include strategic action short of strike action including the withdrawal of goodwill (such as training or use of personal mobile phones for work duties) refusal to do non-contractual overtime or working through breaks. The use of these tactics, mostly in advance of strike action and always coupled with serious preparation for strike action can further enhance the impact and help speed up the winning of disputes.

Solidarity is a key weapon we have in our arsenal. Taking united action strengthens us hugely. It also illustrates how we can challenge divide and rule tactics by management and bosses including the conscious use of agency staff to cut across union organisation and create a multi-tier workforce. An approach to seriously organise agency

workers is an important prerequisite to cut across this tactic.

Effective co-ordinated industrial action needed

When railway workers took strike action in England, Wales and Scotland during the Summer there were attempts by bosses and the Tories to turn other workers against them - this backfired on the media and the Tories as Mick Lynch popularised picket lines and strikes again. He was so successful precisely because more and more workers see the absolute necessity for us to take effective industrial action.

Action that is co-ordinated - ensuring ballots and strike action is occurring at the same time across workplaces and sectors; escalating action - making sure that workers are able to increase the pressure on bosses if they continue to refuse to meet the demands of workers, and determined - well organised and led by workers on the ground - is essential.

In the context of the cost of living crisis, even double-digit pay increases are quickly wiped out. We therefore also need price reductions and controls.

We have to reverse the privatisation drives of previous decades which followed the pro-market and neo-liberal model and impacted Royal Mail as well as BT. Challenge the system

Energy giants and other key sectors should be nationalised and run democratically by workers in a planned way to meet the needs of people and the planet and no longer in order to create profits for the few. Far from bringing about better services and lower prices, capitalist competition has meant an attack on workers' rights generally. This is clearly seen in the distribution and

170,000 CWU members from Royal Mail and BT/Openreach went on strike in Britain and the North on 31 August

postal sector where now companies like Amazon are setting the tone as the gig economy expands further with devastating consequences for workers'. The recent walkouts of Amazon workers in the US and Britain are important illustrations of workers being pushed into action.

Achieving this will require a political voice for working-class people here that can fight for the economic changes we need and at the same time unite workers from Protestant, Catholic and other backgrounds. None of the main parties here are capable of doing this and they have no interest in this either.

They continue to rely on sectarian division and for all their rhetoric will stand united against the interest of working-class people as so clearly shown by their 3% pay rise for health workers they imposed last year. It means that as well as fighting in workplaces we have to build a political organisation based on struggle that involves young people and workers of all backgrounds.

Workers' struggle pays off 1. lecturers at uu (ulster university) refused to submit marked assignments and papers at the end of the academic year. this was the most effective way lecturers could bring pressure to bear on previously indifferent vice-chancellors.

2. by threatening and seriously preparing for strike action, translink workers in april won a significantly improved deal. this illustrated the power workers have and bosses were forced into giving concessions to avoid strike action.

3. GlenDimplex workers in November 2021 voted to stop doing overtime even though many relied on overtime to top up their income just to pay bills. this caused huge pressure on the company and made the strike action taken by workers more effective and with a more immediate impact.

4. Workers in interface in craigavon in may 2022 withdrew goodwill (including training new staff and agency workers who could have potentially replaced them during strike action) which unified the workforce in the face of strike breaking and anti-union messaging ahead of strike action. they also set up strike and picket committees to ensure that it was people who best knew the workplace and what would have maximum impact on the company were the ones organising action. Pickets, therefore, were highly effective in bringing bosses to heel quickly.

"Never cross a picket line!" This principle has been reinforced during numerous strikes across the North in recent months. Whether a worker works for the company or not we can encourage them to not cross the picket line, join the action/union and support the strike.

We have the power to change

Unless we now take determined action the situation is only set to get worse for working-class people. Prices are expected to continue to rise with energy prices predicted to stay at extreme heights for the next six years, with waiting lists continuing to soar and poverty surging while the housing crisis and other factors are sharpening further. That is what capitalism has to offer working-class people in 2022!

We have the power to change this. As covid again demonstrated, it is workers who make society function - we produce everything, we move everything, we connect everyone. We make the profits the bosses benefit from. And we can stop doing that. When linked to a determined campaign and when we stand together we can mobilise our power to force bosses and the establishment into concessions. This should include wages rising automatically with inflation, immediate pay rises and an end to poverty wages through an immediate increase in the minimum wage.

To win we need to build a serious campaign of action including: l A serious campaign of industrial action including selective action, work to rule, overtime bans and naming further strike actions. l Organise workplace meetings to democratically decide how best to build strike action l Build for massive protests on 1st October to support the strike action momentum. l Coordinate strike action of all workers fighting back and seek to expand our struggle towards a general strike on the cost of living crisis l Workers have united on picket lines but we also need to unite politically. All of the main parties represent the status quo. We need a socialist alternative that can unite across the sectarian divide

10

The socialist

socialist party summer school 2022 – ‘hugely enjoyable & educational event’

report & theory

Socialism 101 series #7 Doesn’t capitalism incentivise hard work because people are motivated by money?

f

Rom 18 to 21 August, socialist Party members north and south and visitors from international socialist Alternative (isA) joined together in glendalough to participate in the Party’s annual summer school, the first since the pandemic. The weekend was a success with 130 members and supporters attending over the course of the four days.

Topics on the agenda included, many among others, commissions on: ‘Resisting the rise of the far right’, ‘The relevance of James Connolly’s Labour in Irish History”, ‘Rebuilding militant trade unionism amongst a new generation’, ‘Capitalism & the origins of racism’, ‘Socialism & the fight for trans liberation’, and a commission in Irish on ‘Cad is Sóisialachas Ann?’, We asked young members, who participated for their first time, to give their thoughts about how the weekend went: Hayley (Belfast)

“As a relatively new member of the Socialist Party, this year’s Summer School in Wicklow was truly such an eye opening and enjoyable experience and has also provided so much scope for further learning for the future. I already feel that each of the sessions I attended have really developed and strengthened my knowledge of the Party’s values as well as its key areas of focus and how best to implement these in our wider society.

Being able to attend sessions such as ‘The revolution & the party we need’, ‘War & capitalism — how can we end both’ as well as an introduction to Marxist philosophy, has really helped to solidify my understanding of what it means to be a Marxist as well as to highlight the vital importance of a strong socialist movement today given our current global situation.

It was also a wonderful opportunity to meet with fellow comrades, from both close to home and further afield.

It was so rewarding to be able to engage in discussions with people from different international perspectives and with such a beautiful setting as Glendalough, I came home feeling refreshed as well as excited to be even more involved in the Party moving forward.”

by eddie mccabe

Maya (Dublin)

“The Summer School in Glendalough was a fantastic post-pandemic weekend full of political discussions.

I’m a 6th year student who joined the party less than a year ago, and the school really solidified my understanding about why I became involved with the Socialist Party. Both the commissions that analysed current issues while explaining a socialist way forward, and the people I met and talked with, removed feelings of doomerism that I and many other young people experience. As a young person I often find it paralysing to read about trans lives under capitalism, about the war in Ukraine or about the way in which mental health is treated in capitalist Ireland. But the way that commissions were held made me leave with a sense of motivation and a concrete way forward.

I think the commission I found the most interesting was titled ‘War and

marxist journal of the Socialist Party:

Socialist Alternative no.15

Capitalism — how can we end both?’.

Mick Barry did the lead-off. He quoted Carl von Claueswitz who famously argued that ‘war is a continuation of policy by other means’. War is used as a political instrument by world leaders when they cannot get what they want peacefully. Wars are made by the ruling class, to the detriment of the working class. Ordinary people gain nothing from war but are coerced, or more often, forced to kill each other for the gains of the capitalist class. Mick also pointed out that war is an extremely profitable industry for the producers of arms.

It’s shocking for me to learn about this war through a Marxist analysis because in school we are taught that war is triggered by one ‘bad guy’ or because Western powers are ‘defending democracy’ when in fact war is a horrible outcome of the system of capitalism. What I appreciated most about all the commissions that I attended was that they always offered a way forward.”

S CIALIST Marxist Journal of the Socialist Party Issue 15 Summer 2022 €4 / £4

includes articles on: l resisting the right-wing backlash – building a movement for lGbtQ liberation l imperialism & war – outgrowth of global capitalist competition l the cWi & socialist feminism – redressing a checkered history l North: from ‘historic election’ to new crisis at Stormont l organising the unorganised – lessons from workers past and present l universal basic income – what do socialists say? l ‘War against bolshevism’ – civil war in ireland, 1922-23 l reviews of Derry Girls, Over the Bridge, An Cailin Ciuin’ and A Spectre, Haunting

€4 / £4 Get a copy from any Socialist Party member or order online or subscribe at: socialistparty.ie

INSIDE

Imperialism & war – the outgrowth of global capitalist competition Organising the unorganised: Lessons from workers past and present ’War against Bolshevism’ – Civil War in Ireland, 1922-23

THE WORLDVIEW of every mainstream economist and right-wing politician is predicated on the belief that people are motivated primarily by money, and therefore, to them an economy that’s not based on profit-making is inconceivable.

Of course, in a capitalist economy if you don’t have money you don’t live, so it’s true that that incentive is always there. But is the pursuit of more money what drives people to do all the things they do? Well, no.

People do all kinds of wonderful and not so wonderful things, which they dedicate their limited time to, for reasons other than money. The fact that capitalism means investment only in areas where profit can be made, however, means most people involved in things like art, music, science, politics and sport have no choice but to pursue these interests without financial assistance.

In fact, millions of people work in jobs they have little interest in just to make enough money to get by, and develop their passions in what spare time they have left.

Even still, there are countless examples of people who devote their lives to projects or causes for little or no monetary return.

Obvious examples include figures like Fr Peter McVerry or Greta Thunberg. The main reward for these people is that they are in their own way helping people or the environment.

Similarly, non-profit institutions like Wikipedia — the fourth most visited website in the world — show what can be produced by (mostly) volunteers.

But it goes deeper. Recent studies (commissioned not by socialists, but the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) suggest that money is a good motivator when it comes to straightforward, mechanical tasks, and offering monetary rewards for such work results in higher productivity —

but that’s where it ends. When it comes to more complicated work that requires skills and creativity, monetary rewards no longer produce the same results, and if anything have a negative impact.

Once people don’t have to worry about money, they can begin to focus their energies, talents and abilities. What actually motivates people in the workplace are three other factors: autonomy, mastery and purpose. That means 1) having some control over their working lives, 2) developing their skills to the fullest potential, and 3) doing meaningful things that make a difference.

Life for most workers under capitalism is 40-odd mindnumbing hours of drudgery under the dictatorship of a manager, with anxiety about job security and financial woes to boot. Only a lucky minority ever experience autonomy, mastery or purpose in their jobs.

As far as innovation goes, there’s a very real disincentive under capitalism to find more efficient ways of working, because it won’t mean better pay or less work — it will eventually mean fewer jobs for workers.

Just think of the breakthroughs we’d have made if things were the other way around. Think of the potential we would unleash if people’s basic needs — hunger, shelter, security — were guaranteed and they didn’t have to worry about merely surviving, which is what most people’s money today is spent on.

In a socialist economy, based on public ownership and democratic planning of the wealth, resources and industry in society under workers’ control, the alienation of work under capitalism could be eradicated. The necessary menial work could be shared out to allow everyone to pursue lives — with considerably more leisure time — and work in which they can contribute to the collective advancement of society, as well as themselves as individuals.

soCiAlist feminism

11

The socialist

reject viral misogynist Andrew tate & his toxic agenda by aislinn o’Keeffe

l

AsT monTh a number of social media corporations announced that they were banning the hateful lowlife Andrew Tate from their platforms. of course, this hasn’t stopped videos of his content being uploaded across social media, particularly on TikTok, and the recent ban has seen Tate continuing to receive a platform through podcast and TV interviews, including Tucker Carlson’s fox news show.

Andrew Tate is a kick-boxer and former Big Brother contestant who was kicked off the reality show in 2016 after footage leaked of him abusing a woman with a belt, along with homophobic and racist tweets. He has become viral in recent times due to the deeply misogynistic and controversial ideology he peddles to his millions of mostly young male online followers.

Social media algorithms, which elevate controversy, have ensured that he has a wide reach resulting in more clicks for content creators and corporations equating to profit for all involved.

Sinister ideology

Thousands of interview clips of Tate are circulating online whereby he propounds his toxic ideology. It is an ideology of male supremacy whereby women are to be subservient and obe-

dient to men and whereby men have the freedom to speak and act however they wish without repercussions.

In some of his worst monologues he demonstrates how to subdue a woman, “slap, slap, grab, choke, shut up b*tch, sex.” In another interview, he states that women who were raped “must bare some responsibility.” The 35-year-old also speaks openly about his preference for dating 18- and 19-year-old girls as they are easier to put his “imprint” on.

In addition, he believes that men are permitted to cheat on their female partners; however women are not even permitted to speak to other men.

Among his many pronouncements is his assertion that “depression isn’t real” and that instead people are simply “lazy.” Tate’s treatment of other men is not much better; those who do not live up to his ideal of masculinity are deemed failures. In one instance, he responds to a man fundraising for his ill son by saying, “do you feel like a failure that the amount you need to help your own son is less than a quarter than I spent on one of my five cars?”

Socially entrenched ideas

One thing that we can find agreement on with Tate is that what he is saying is not new. These deeply misogynistic views are entrenched in capitalist society, along with harmful views of what constitutes masculinity. They serve to

Andrew Tate's vile views, which are targetting young men on social media, must be actively opposed

justify the inequality of the system and maintain the status quo.

Meanwhile, men’s violence against women is widespread, while rates of depression are on the rise. Globally, one in three women are affected by genderbased violence in their lifetime, while the rate of suicide among men stands at 13.9 deaths for every 100,000.

Misogynists like Andrew Tate claim they aim to help men and boys but their message exacerbates mental health issues by encouraging them to

feel ashamed rather than seek help.

Toxic sexist views alienate men and boys from women and girls and train them to view other men as competitors to whom they should constantly measure themselves, deepening the alienation that these men already feel.

Building solidarity

It is crucial that these toxic views are intercepted, and this task should not be left to mega corporations whose sole intent is to make profit regardless of the

consequences to society. Working-class organisation is the only effective means to counter this swelling tide. Men must intervene with their younger counterparts and must join women and gender non-conforming people with a socialist feminist programme to organise against the toxic system which pits workingclass people against each other. Building solidarity and community in realising that all our struggles emanate from the same source is the single most effective and empowering tool at our disposal.

irFU must reverse its shameful decision to ban trans women athletes in the american Ncaa competition. one line read: “as a woman in sports, i can tell you that i know what the real threats to women’s sports are: sexual abuse and harassment, unequal pay and resources and a lack of women in leadership. transgender girls and women are nowhere on this list.”

by aoife coppinger ON 10 August, the IRFU announced that it is changing its Gender Participation Policy, meaning that trans women will no longer be allowed to play contact rugby in the female category. There were just two registered trans women players at this time according to the IRFU itself. this follows a decision by World rugby in 2020, making it the first international sporting body to ban trans women from the women’s game. the rfu in england also made a very similar policy change just last month.

A decision which will contribute to increasing transphobia in a time when transphobia is already on the rise, this decision is bound to stir up a further increase in transphobia. transphobic policies are sweeping the globe, with 110 anti-trans bills proposed in the uS alone from January to June 2021. 2021 was also the deadliest year for trans people in the uS. in ireland, trans people face an appalling trans healthcare system, with a single clinic for those over 17, for which waiting lists take up to ten years, and no public healthcare option for those under 17. they face harassment and discrimination on the streets, in their workplace and in school. they face the national broadcaster rte, and other media, normalis-

At the time of the ban’s introduction there were just two registered trans women rugby players

ing vile transphobic ideas. lGbtQ+ inclusive rugby club, the emerald Warriors, spoke out about the irfu’s decision. one part of their statement read, “there is a risk that the fallout and repercussions of this policy will accelerate into other sports and transphobia overall.”

The real issues for women’s sport the irfu targeting trans women and girls also comes at a time when it has recently been under scrutiny for its

treatment of women’s rugby. after the senior team’s failure to qualify for the World cup in September, questions began to be asked of the irfu. before 2020 the women’s team received €2 million compared to €28 million for the men. fifty six of the country’s current and former top women players wrote a letter to the irfu outlining their complete distrust and disillusionment with the leading figures in the irfu due to the underfunding and overall underappreciation

of the women’s game. these pressures pushed the irfu to increase the funding for the women’s team to €4 million, still drastically behind the men. the participation of trans women and girls in sport is an issue being utilised by the irfu now, but also in sport more broadly, to deflect from the real issues facing women’s sport under capitalism. erica Sullivan, an elite swimmer, wrote a letter in support of fellow swimmer lia thomas, a trans woman, being able to compete

Capitalism has no answers under capitalism, a system which depends on gender roles and stereotypes to survive, sport will always be perpetuating strict gender binaries. however, it is clear that these strict categories on gender simply do not work for a large section of the population. Not only do they exclude trans people, but intersex people, non-binary people, even cis women with higher levels of testosterone than ‘normal’ — with two Namibian runners being banned from competing in the next olympics due to their natural testosterone levels. this is just another way to police women and lGbtQi+ people’s bodies to supposedly ‘protect women’s sports’, when in reality it distracts from the reality that gender equality in sport, and indeed in general, is impossible under capitalism. the only way forward is to fight for a socialist system that puts human need and health over profit, and can break with backward gender roles, pointing to a new way forward for sport and society.

TheSocialist

PaPer of the SocialiSt Party

iSSue 148

SePtember 2022

Savita 10 Years Later

MarCh for health, equality & boDily autonoMy 1pm saturday 29 october, garden of remembrance to the Dáil

ROSA Socialist Feminist Movement

What the socialist party stands for: “The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go.” — James Connolly was right. The immense social, political and economic crises that dominate life in the 21st century all testify to this truth, but the climate emergency gives added urgency to its meaning. That’s why the Socialist Party stands for revolutionary socialist change, and why we are organising to bring it about. We support every right and reform that can improve life for working-class people, while fighting for what’s needed. We say: if capitalism can’t afford to provide for our needs then we can’t afford capitalism.

Workplace • All workers need double-digit wage rises.

For a €16 an hour minimum wage.

• End precarity and bogus self-employment. For guaranteed hours with permanent contracts for all workers.

• A four-day work week with no loss of pay.

• Reduce the pension age to 60. A guaranteed decent pension for all.

• No layoffs. Open up the books and take large job shedding companies into public ownership, under democratic workers’ control and management, with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need.

• Repeal the Industrial Relations Act. For the

right to organise and effective action.

• For a fighting trade union movement that organises the unorganised and mobilises the power of its membership. All officials should be elected, subject to recall and live on the wages of the workers they represent.

Housing • Reduce and freeze rents at affordable levels. Ban evictions.

• For a major programme to build public homes. Take the big construction companies into public ownership. Seize vacant properties and unused land being hoarded for profit.

• Provide culturally appropriate accommodation for Travellers.

• Nationalise the banks and repudiate the odious debt. Reduce mortgage payments to affordable levels.

Public services • End church control of schools and hospitals – full separation of church and state.

• For a major public works programme to build public schools, hospitals and childcare facilities.

• For a one-tier, national health service free at the point of use. Bring all private hospitals, nursing homes and pharmaceutical companies into public ownership.

• Free publicly-run childcare scheme for

join The socialisT parTy

every community. Extend fully-paid parental leave to two years and provide high quality early-years education.

• For 24-hour free counselling services and education programmes to begin to tackle the mental health crisis.

• Free education and training for all. Abolish the Leaving Cert system and provide a Third-level place for all who want one, with a living grant for all students. Build affordable, accessible student accommodation.

Environment • For substantial investment in an expanded, reliable and free public transport system.

• End the reliance on fossil fuels — keep them in the ground. For extensive state investment in renewable energy, retrofitting homes and public buildings, and green jobs.

• For a just transition to a zero carbon economy, with no job losses or regressive carbon taxes.

• Take the fossil fuel companies, big agribusinesses and corporations into democratic public ownership to stop the destruction of our planet for profit.

Equal rights for all • Oppose all forms of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.

• For LGBTQ-inclusive, consent-based sex education in schools. Fully fund trans healthcare.

• Reduce the voting age to 16.

• Defend the right to asylum. End Direct Provision. Abolish all racist immigration laws.

• Black lives matter! Oppose far-right division.

• Fight to end gender violence, abuse and harassment in all its forms.

• For a socialist feminist movement that unites the whole working class in the struggle against oppression.

For workers’ unity in Ireland • For the unity of the working class, Protestant and Catholic, North and South, in opposition to all forms of sectarianism, paramilitarism and state repression.

• For a socialist Ireland, with no coercion and the rights of minorities guaranteed, as part of a free, equal and voluntary socialist federation of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, as part of a socialist Europe.

End the rule of the billionaires • Take the wealth off the 1%. For real progressive taxation on incomes, assets and profits to fund public services. Stop tax avoidance and evasion by the wealthy.

• Double corporation tax. End corporate

welfare policies.

• No to all forms of privatisation in health, education, transport, housing, energy, sanitation, water and broadband provision.

For socialist change • Capitalism produces inequality, environmental destruction and war. We need an international struggle against this system.

• Solidarity with the struggles of workers and oppressed peoples internationally.

• Oppose all imperialist powers, wars and occupations. No to NATO and EU militarisation. US military out of Shannon.

• No to corporate “free trade” agreements.

No to the bosses’ EU and “Fortress Europe”.

• Build a new mass party that organises workers and young people in struggle against all injustices and for a socialist alternative. For a working-class movement to bring about a left, socialist government that breaks with capitalism.

• Take the key sectors of the economy — the monopolies in banking, industry, services, agriculture and big tech — into public ownership under the democratic control of the working class.

• Replace the capitalist market with a democratic socialist plan for the economy based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and the environment.

www.socialistparty.ie / www.socialistpartyni.org